Education Edge » UM Education Professor Elected MSTA President

 

UM Education Professor Elected MSTA President

by UM School of Education on January 15, 2019

OXFORD, Miss. — Joseph Sumrall, a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Education, was recently elected to serve as the future president of the Mississippi Science Teachers Association (MSTA), starting in 2020.

Sumrall, who has been a member of MSTA since 1987, wants to incorporate more opportunities for north Mississippi teachers and college education students across Mississippi to become more involved with the association during his presidency. He was elected for the position by members of the association who were in attendance at the MTSA annual conference.

“It’s an honor that I was elected by my peers for this position,” Sumrall said. “It was an honor to even be nominated for this position. I was very happy to learn that I was elected. It’s going to be a lot of work but we have a great board that works very hard, too.”

MSTA’s mission is to promote quality science education, professional development in content areas, implementation of science inquiry and the networking of science educators, according to its website.

The organization publishes a monthly newsletter and maintains a Facebook page and website with resources and lesson plans that teachers can access for activities. MTSA hosts an annual conference on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Before being elected as the future president, Sumrall was the professional liaison officer for the organization, a position which seeks comprobable conferences and programs for members of MTSA.

“Dr. Sumrall’s election is a reflection of his hard work in education throughout his lifetime,” said Susan McClelland, UM chair of teacher education. “He is not only a distinguished collegiate educator, but he is also recognized on the K-12 level because of his work with MTSA and his work in schools that he still pursues. He does a great job at pulling together the higher education perspective and the practitioner perspective, so his new position will be a great use of his talents.”

Sumrall earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Mississippi in zoology and chemical engineering in 1978 and 1982, respectively. He also holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in education from the University of Southern Mississippi. Developing curriculum for the K-12 classroom and research in science education has led Sumrall to more than 30 publications in national journals and multiple grant fundings.

Sumrall was a high school science teacher in Florida until he earned his doctorate and began his college teaching career as an assistant professor at Northeastern Illinois University. He has been a UM faculty member since 2000 and previously served as a faculty member at Mississippi State University.

“MSTA’s main mission is to bring science into the K-12 classroom and to effectively teach it,” he said. “My key point is that we want to improve science instruction.”

By Kathleen Murphy